1. Raffles Institution
Year 2 Research Education
Design for Change School Challenge 2011
RAISING AWARENESS ABOUT RECYCLING
IN YEAR 2 RAFFLES INSTITUTION (RI) STUDENTS
By: Recycling in School
Team Leader:
Wang Wei Jie David (2Q)
Team Members:
Hu Yi Guo (2Q)
Lucas Lee (2Q)
Wahid Al Mamun (2Q)
Teacher-mentor:
Mr. J Daniel Luther

2. Acknowledgements
-Our Teacher-Mentors, who have guided us throughout this project:
-Mr Zachary Low
-Mrs Cheryl Yap
-Ms Chan Yan Ru
-The school and the Research Education department, for making DFC (Design For
Change) a new Research Education project, and without whom embarking on this
project would not have been possible.
-Mrs. Lim Yoke Tong, for creating Awareness Week specifically for the Design for
Change Action Week
-Our parents, who have always been our beacon of hope in times of need when
carrying out our project
-Our peers, who have supported us and helped us in one way or another.

3. Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Abstract
Arc 1: Proposal of Topic
Choice and Significance of Topic
Feasibility of Topic
Methodology To Be Taken
Arc 2: Literature Review
What is the situation?
What is the degree of the situation?
Who is affected?
What are the solutions?
Arc 3: Methodology Taken for Action Week
Arc 4: Action Week
What we did to do what we did.
What we achieved
Arc 5: Results and Reflections
Strengths and weaknesses and how we overcame problems
Learning points
Reflections
Sources
Appendix:
Sample Survey

4. Abstract
Our project aims to get more people to recycle, mainly by raising even more
awareness about it. Our observations showed that many people simply throw their
waste materials, such as water bottles and drink cans, away into the dustbins
despite the fact that recycling bins are very close by. As such, we want to get them
to start recycling. In order to do this, 150 surveys were administered on RI Year 2
students, who are our main target audience, to find out the root cause of students
not recycling, as well as to find out possible solutions to this problem. Through the
surveys given out, we found out that most people do not recycle as there are no
incentives in doing so, or were just too lazy to do so. Therefore, we implemented
several ideas, such as creating posters to spread awareness and warn students of
the consequences of not recycling, a Facebook page doing the same thing and
putting “Recycling boxes” in classes for students to be able to recycle with ease.

5. Arc 1: Proposal of Topic
1.1 Choice and Significance of Topic
This topic was chosen after looking at individual preliminary ideas that were
generated by each and every group member. Even though the ideas were distinct,
most of them had a same problem- that is, the problem of the lack of eco-
friendliness. Slowly, after a few meetings and several discussions with our then
teacher-mentor Mr. Zachary Low, we decided to embark on the project on recycling.
To be more specific, we started on a project to help raise awareness on recycling,
specifically on Year 2 Raffles Institution Students. This is due to the fact that first of
all, the Year 2 batch of this year is our batch, so data tabulation would be made
easier. Other than that, through our first-hand observation from every-day life, Year 2
Rafflesian students rarely maximize the recycling facilities already put in place.
Moreover, the Year 2 students of Raffles Institution would also be an ideal batch
because they have been in Raffles Institution long enough to know about the steps
that Raffles Institution have taken for increasing recycling in the compound, but they
are also young enough to change their mindset about recycling. Thus, the Year 2
batch was chosen as the target pitch for our project. Moreover, with such a small
sample size, we can then examine the reasons as to why they do not maximize the
recycling facilities in school, and thus we can have this project as a start for our
group, or other groups to examine the reasons as to why Singaporean youth or even
youth in general do not maximize already-existing recycling facilities.
Other than that, we decided to take on recycling as our main project because
of the fact that with every passing day, due to our rapidly globalizing society, more
and more resources are being used up to support our rapid progress. Thus,
resources are wasted, and some resources, such as oil, are expected to dry up
pretty soon. Thus, recycling is becoming more and more important as the solution to
this resource crisis. Thus, through our project, we can benefit the society because of
the fact that our findings might be useful to see why Rafflesian youth, and almost in
effect, Singapore youth, do not recycle, such that adaptations to the system can be
made for suiting this problem.

6. 1.2 Feasibility of Topic
We believe that this topic would be feasible because of the fact that many
groups before us have embarked on this topic, and so this would prove to be
stepping stones for our own discovery about the two sides of our problem- that is the
limitations of the Rafflesian recycling system, as well as the reasons as to why Year
2 Rafflesian Students do not maximize recycling facilities. Other than that, we also
feel that it would be possible to carry out this project because according to what we
have observed from our time in Raffles Institution, recycling facilities can be
improved, and at the same time, students‟ mindsets about recycling can be changed
as well through our outreach.
1.3 Methodology To Be Taken
Being a Design For Change (DFC) project, there are some aspects of the
methodology that are compulsory. However, we felt that these methods alone are
not enough to carry out our entire project. Thus, we decided to adapt the DFC
methodology for our benefits.
Firstly, we decided to do a literature review such as to further understand the
recycling attempts being taken by local governments, especially in schools. Through
this literature review, we would be able to come up with the reasons as to why the
system is not fully utilized. However, the literature review, which handles only the
aspect of the problems with our recycling system, would not suffice as our baseline
for our solutions. Thus, we also decided to carry out a survey on a sample size of
more than a hundred Year 2 Rafflesian students such as to further find out the
reasons as to why students do not fully utilize the system. With these two pieces of
information in our research, we can then tackle the next part of the project, which is
the mandatory Action Week, based on the Design For Change (DFC) outline.
Basically, the Action Week is a seven-day, staggered series of actions that would
have to be undertaken by all participating groups such as to tackle issues already
collected from preliminary research. With the conclusion of the Action Week, we
would then assess the effectiveness of our solutions, which would be the net result
of our project, and also the baseline for other groups embarking on similar projects.

7. Arc 2: Literature Review
We have to find out the problems that a lack of recycling causes, things like
consuming more energy and fossil fuels and deforestation, which lead to global
warming. We also have to look at the root cause of why students do not recycle,
which involves carrying out surveys and possibly interviews (something that we did
not do)
Every single being on the planet is affected, because firstly, global warming occurs
on a global scale, and secondly, things like contamination and deforestation also
affect wildlife. Along with that, recycling can also be linked to the economy, and that
means it has the potential to change many things, and in effect, lives.
The current situation of the world is already dire, with millions of tons of rubbish
disposed of every year, and even more than 90% of plastics not recycled. Sea levels
are expected to rise by a few inches in the next few decades, and the temperature is
steadily inclining.
The obvious solution would be to get more people to recycle, mostly by educating
and raising awareness for recycling. For some people, the thought of recycling the
recyclable they‟re about to dump into the dustbin doesn‟t even cross their mind. By
raising awareness, we can lead to them recycling recyclable items. For others, it
could be that they‟re too lazy, in which case we could provide incentives for them.
However, due to a lack of money and a good system, the only incentive we can offer
them would be for them to be able to survive global warming and not die to disasters
resulting from not recycling, and going poor from the rising prices of oil and running
out of natural resources.
As such, we‟re plan use standard things like posters and also utilize Facebook due
to the rising use of social networks and increasingly technologically adept teens of
today.

8. Arc 3: Methodology Taken for Action Week
3.1 Survey Results and Analysis
Before embarking on our Action Week, we decided to come up with a survey
such as to complement our literature review, which only tackles the question of as to
why the school recycling system is not being utilized fully. As part of our research on
how frequently Year 2 Raffles Institution (RI) students recycle, we conducted a
survey on our research topic, in order to gauge a general consensus on how
frequently Year 2 RI students recycle, and the reasons for their willingness, or lack
thereof, of recycling. Our survey had 8 questions crossing over a range of topics. We
did our survey on a total of 158 respondents, of which 115 surveys were valid. Our
respondents were all Year 2 RI students, who were all aged from 13 to 14.
From the survey, we found out that 48 respondents (41.38%) recycled only
some of the time. 35 of the respondents (30.17%) would only recycle at an
infrequent basis. Only 7 respondents (6.03%), however, would recycle all the time.
This can be seen in the graph below.
Question 2
60
48
50
No. of respondents
40
35
30 Series1
17
20
7
9
10
0
Always Most of the time Sometimes Rarely Never
Frequency of Recycling
Fig 1- Question 2
The above results show that most Year 2 Rafflesians do not recycle at a
frequent rate, as seen by the fact that 83 respondents (71.55%) either sometimes or

9. rarely recycle. This is compared to only 24 respondents (20.69%) who would at least
recycle for most of the time.
In Question 3, we asked the respondents who do not recycle all the time as to
why they do not do so. Of the 104 respondents who did not always recycle, 49 of
them (47.12%) stated that they were too lazy to do so, which is a sizeable amount of
people. This possibly reflects the sentiment that Year 2 Rafflesians hold about
recycling, and this may be something we would hope to tackle through our project.
Other than that, 43 respondents (41.35%) stated that there are not enough recycling
bins nearby, which was why they were not willing to recycle a lot. Of these 43, 35 of
them (81.40%) responded in Question 6 that the school should put more recycling
bins around the compound. This reflects the fact that they do care about the system
and want it changed for their benefit.
There are many reasons given as to why Year 2 Rafflesians do not recycle at
a frequent rate, as seen from data from Question 4, which asks the students whether
the school‟s recycling program is effective, as well as to ask the reason why they do
or do not recycle at school. From this question, we can see that a large proportion of
students do not believe that the school‟s system is effective in making them recycle.
In fact, 94 of the respondents (81.04%) believe that the school‟s recycling system is
not that effective. The reasons as to why they responded in such a manner are
depicted in the pie chart in Figure 2.
The pie chart below shows the reasons as to why the respondents who had
not felt that the system that was in place in RI to increase recycling was effective in
making the students recycle felt that way. As seen above, the most common
response from these respondents was the fact that the school makes little effort in
promoting recycling. Out of the 94 respondents who had not felt that the system was
effective, 35 of them (37.23%) feel that the school does not make much of an effort
to promote recycling in school. This can be alleviated if the school takes certain
measures, such as to further imbibe recycling into the CLE (Character and
Leadership Education) syllabus already present in RI, as well as visual aids above
existing recycling bins, as well as rubbish bins, such that students are made aware
of where to recycle. Furthermore, 21 of the respondents (22.34%) state that there

10. are not enough bins in the compound. While it is true that the school would be able
to provide more bins in the compound, this statistic is not entirely reliable, because of
the claims that there are not enough bins in the Junior Block and canteen, when
there are already at least 3 bins in each of these facilities.
Question 4b- Why is the system not effective in making you recycle?
6 2 5
5
Don‟t care about recycling
2
Don't see the reason why should recycle
Not sure
No incentives to do so
35 Not enough bins
21
Not many people recycle
Recycling bins not used
School makes no effort in promoting recycling.
See recyclable stuff in rubbish bin
11
6
Figure 2- Pie Chart of Question 4b
The respondents were also asked in the survey as to whether the school‟s
measures in placing recycling bins throughout the compound are effective in
Question 6. The first part of the question asked them if there is a need to place more
recycling bins in school, as seen in the graph below.

11. Do you think there should be more recycling bins?
100
86
90
No. of respondents 80
70
60
50
40
29
30
20
10
0
Yes No
Figure 3a- Bar chart of Question 6a
The graph above reflects the opinion held about the respondents that the
school is not really doing much. This is evident, because it is seen that 86
respondents (74.78%) felt that more bins are needed in the compound, as compared
to the 29 who said it was not necessary. The 86 respondents who had said yes were
then asked in the second part of the question as to where to put the bins. Their
responses are seen below.
Where should the school put the recycling bins?
6 2
Blocks
7
Classes
30
Replace dustbins
7
The entire compound
Canteen
8 Crowded places
Don't know
10 Staircases
16
Figure 3b- Pie Chart of Question 6b
As seen above, a majority of the 86 respondents (34.88%) feel that there
should be recycling bins in the blocks themselves. This is probably because they are
not aware of the fact that there are already blocks in these locations. This reflects

12. that the bins there should be put in a location quite accessible and visible to the
students, instead of its present location, at which the students are unable to
recognize where the bins are. The next most given location was the classrooms, in
which 16 respondents (18.60%) wanted recycling bins in. This is probably due to the
fact that they are very busy, and the effort to recycle at a place distant from the class
might seem to be a disruption to daily schedule. Thus, they would prefer to have
recycling bins in the classes themselves.
As for the suggested methods given by respondents to increase recycling in
the student population, the presence of a reward system was the most cited
suggestion to increase recycling, as seen in the graph below.
Question 7
Make recycling more
5
Suggested Methods to Increase Recycling
convenient
More recycling bins 13
Incentives 51
Enforce it as rule 4 Series1
Don't know 24
CIP 2
Advertise recycling 17
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
No. of respondents
Figure 4- Bar Chart of Question 7
The graph above shows that out of the 116 respondents, 52 of them (44.83%)
suggested that the school provide incentives to the students such as to recycle. This
shows that the students are willing to recycle only if some reward system is present.
The next most cited suggestion is for the school to advertise recycling. 17
respondents (14.66%) called for the school and other educational boards to further
advertise recycling. This reflects that probably the school has not done enough to
promote recycling. By advertising recycling, it may be possible that students are
made more aware of the reasons of why we should recycle, and thus make recycling

13. part of their daily routine in life. Thus, advertising recycling is a possible step the
school may make in further increasing recycling rates in RI.
The last question we asked them was about the implications of not being able
to recycle properly on the world. This was to assess whether they were aware of the
implications of global warming. The results are as follows:
What are the effects of not recycling?
19
12 48
Climate change
13
Global Warming
Wastage of Resources
Wasted Energy
Economic Loss
Polluted Landscape
42
59
Figure 5- Graph of Question 8
As seen in the graph above, the most given factor was the factor of global
warming, which was stated by 59 respondents. 48 respondents* then gave climate
change as another factor. The least given factor was the one on economic loss,
which was stated by 12 respondents only. This shows that the students are generally
aware of the negative aspects of not recycling properly, but it can be further
embedded into our final plan such as to further increase awareness.
3. 2 Implications of Results on Action Week
The surveys we had conducted over a total of 158 Year 2 RI students, of
which 116 of them were valid. Although this does not make up most of the RI Year 2
2011 cohort, we feel that 115 respondents is a rather accurate view of the cohort,
which means that we can use the results from this survey to help our Design for
Change (DFC) project. There are two main ways that the results garnered from this

14. survey can help our DFC project. For one, by finding out that nearly half of the
respondents had suggested an incentive system as a means to get students to
recycle more, we can thus use it into effect as one of our ways to change the
environment around us, as DFC aims to do. For instance, by having a reward system
for the class which recycles the most within a given time, we can target this main
suggestion that the respondents have already provided to us. Also, by finding out
that the respondents want recycling to be promoted more in school, we can thus set
out to give a presentation on recycling and its relevance to the school, particularly
the Year 2 RI students, who are our target audience. Alternatively, we could also use
posters.
After long deliberation with our teacher-mentor, Mr. Zachary Low (who left the
school for further studies a few weeks after starting on these discussions) as well as
our new teacher-mentor, Ms. Chan Yan Ru, we decided to take up several courses
of action. Firstly, we decided to take part in the Awareness Week exhibition set up by
Mrs. Lim Yoke Tong from the 19th to the 21st of July such as to further spread our
message through an exhibit. Other than that, we suggested the uses of posters, as
well as an incentive idea, which involved an incentive for the class who recycled the
most amount of stuff in a given amount of time. This was to be done in conjunction
with the Year Head for Year 2, Mr. Daniel Chua, and the Year 2 CECC (Class
Executive Committee Council)

15. Arc 4: Action Week
4.1 Awareness Week
Thanks to Mrs. Lim Yoke Tong‟s attempts to set aside time for all the Design
For Change (DFC) groups to complete their Action Week, the school decided to set
aside 3 days solely for DFC groups to carry out their Action Week. Thus, from the
19th to the 21st of July, 2011, our group decided to take part in the Awareness Week
exhibition, as it was so called. This Awareness Week would be essential for us to
spread the message of recycling to the school. On these 3 days, the four of us took
turns to man our given booth at the Main Atrium, while answering questions about
our project. At the same time, our preliminary posters (not officially stamped by the
General Office) would also be on showcase at our booth to catch the attention of
passers-by.
4.2 The Facebook Status
During our discussion, it came to us that we do not need to rely on physical
outreaches to get the attention of people. We realized that most of our target
audience, that is to say the Year 2 cohort of Raffles Institution, are active on the
virtual world, and thus, we decided to harness this to our advantage. Lately, we have
found out that Facebook has been used as a main political weapon, and a medium
for social change. This was most evident when a stream of Facebook statuses
regarding child abuse originating in America caught the attention of many public
figures on Facebook, such as the news broadcasting site CNN, as well as others.
This then became a global phenomenon for about 2 to 3 weeks.
The idea of the Facebook status is to put a status that is generic, and then
asking people to „like‟ the status on Facebook before posting it on their respective
walls. Of course, this was a risky game, seeing as Facebook has many people who
are apathetic towards recycling, and those who claim that posting a message on
saving the environment on Facebook is just a contradiction to our Action Plan.

16. Despite all those risks, we took the chance, and it was reasonably successful,
although unlike the child abuse status, our status remained local.
4.3 Recycling Boxes
Due to one of the reasons that students do not recycle being the
inconvenience of having to go a long distance to reach a recycling bin, we tried out a
new initiative within our own class – to install a box for students to throw their waste
paper into, and when it was filled up, one person could bring it to a recycling bin for
paper and recycle it all, thus making it much easier and convenient, and allowing
students to recycle more.
4.4 Posters
We designed a myriad of posters designed to achieve multiple things, such as
to raise awareness about recycling, remind students to recycle, share facts about the
negative consequences of not recycling, or a combination of these. These posters
have been approved and most of them are placed above the dustbins in the canteen,
thus reminding the students to recycle their waste instead of trashing it, while a few
others are in common areas, such as the Junior Block‟s staircase landing, so that it
can capture the students‟ attention and get them to recycle.

17. Arc 5: Results and Reflections
5.1 Results
During the course of this entire project, we learnt many different things and we
managed to bond together as a team. Even though we changed our teacher-mentor
2 times, we remained focused on our goal, which was to persuade people to recycle.
Even though our project was not a resounding success, we believe that we have
made a considerable impact on the state of recycling in Raffles Institution and
changed the mindsets of some students. As such, we consider our project a success
as we have achieved the goals that we set at the start of this project.
5.2 Problems and how we overcame them
We encountered many problems while doing this project. An example was finding
solutions to the problem that we identified. Initially, we believed that it was extremely
difficult, if not impossible, to change the mindsets of students in Raffles Institution.
However, we boldly carried out the solutions that we brainstormed and it turned out
to be successful.
5.3 Learning points and possible future extensions
We learnt many things during the course of this project. We learnt that
communication is extremely important in a group in order to succeed as we would
not be able to carry out our allocated tasks properly as we are not clear of the things
that need to be done. Also, we learnt many things about our group mates that we did
not realize before embarking on this project. As with any other project, there is room
for improvement. We believe that interviewing related persons would have added
great insight to our project. Also, we could have launched a bigger scale initiative to
persuade more people to change their mindsets and start recycling.

18. BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Warmer and sicker? Global warming and human health." Nova: Science in the News,
Accessed April 6, 2011. http://www.science.org.au/nova/081/081key.htm.
Podesta, John. "Global Warming's Toll on the Economy." American Progress,
September 17, 2007. Accessed March 08, 2011.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/09/podesta_nast.html.
"Green Facts." EcoForce: Eco Products That Work, Accessed March 06, 2011.
http://www.ecoforce.co.uk/green-facts.htm.
Bowling, Clarke . "Cartoon pictures for Facebook profiles a sign of support for anti-child
abuse campaign." New York Daily, December 03, 2010.

19. Appendix A: Our Survey
Good day, Sir. We are a group of Year 2 students and we are carrying out this
survey for our RE project, which focuses on recycling in RI and mainly why students
do not recycle, as well as possible solutions. We would appreciate your cooperation
and help in completing this very short survey. Please circle the appropriate answers
and answer the open-ended questions honestly and seriously.
1) What is your age?
13
14
15
16
2) How often do you recycle? Please provide as accurate an estimate as
possible.
Always 100% of the time when it is possible
Most of the time Perhaps 70-90%
Sometimes 50-70%
Seldom 1-50%
Never 0%
3) Please rank the reasons for why you do not recycle with 1 being the biggest
factor and 2 being the next biggest factor
Too lazy
No recycling bins nearby (Within 20 metres)
Arguments against recycling found online
Think that recycling does not have much of an impact
Others: _______________________________________________________
4) Is the school‟s effort in making pupils recycle effective? (i.e. are they
succeeding in getting more people to recycle)
Yes
No

20. Please elaborate:
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
5) What items do you normally recycle in school?
Drink cans/bottles
Cardboard
Paper
Metal
Glass
None
Others: __________________________________________
6) Should the school put more recycling bins around?
Yes
No
If so, could you suggest where, as well as what bins to put?
____________________________________
7) Could you suggest some possible ways to get students to recycle more?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
8) Please try to state as many impacts that result from not recycling as you know
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Thank you for your time. This information you have provided will be very
helpful and will give us great insight towards the problem of recycling in RI.
Do be informed that we may conduct a follow-up survey in the future which
will be something along this line, so please try to show the same co-operation
then as you have shown now.
Have a nice day!

21. Appendix B: Our Posters